(a) Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to flat panel displays. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to liquid crystal displays having multiple pixel regions for improved transmittance.
(b) Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display, which is one of the most common types of flat panel displays currently in use, includes two panels with field generating electrodes such as a pixel electrode, a common electrode, and the like, with a liquid crystal layer interposed therebetween.
The liquid crystal display generates an electric field in the liquid crystal layer by applying a voltage to the field generating electrodes, and determines the orientation of liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer by the generated electric field, thus controlling polarization of incident light so as to display images.
The LCD also includes switching elements connected to the respective pixel electrodes, and a plurality of signal lines such as gate lines and data lines for controlling the switching elements and applying voltages to the pixel electrodes.
Different types of LCDs exist. A vertical alignment (VA) mode LCD, which aligns LC molecules such that their long axes are perpendicular to the panels in the absence of an electric field, is sometimes preferred because of its relatively high contrast ratio and wide reference viewing angle. Here, the reference viewing angle implies a viewing angle that has a contrast ratio of 1:10, or a critical angle of gray-to-gray luminance reversion.
In order to approximate side visibility to front visibility in the vertical alignment mode LCD, a method of causing a difference in transmittance by dividing one pixel into two sub-pixels and applying different voltages to the two sub-pixels has been suggested.
However, when approximating the side visibility to the front visibility by dividing one pixel into two subpixels and forming different transmittances, the luminance is increased at a low gray or high gray such that gray expression is difficult at the sides, thereby deteriorating display quality.
Also, when dividing one pixel into two subpixels, the transmittance is decreased according to the interval between the two subpixels.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.